Jean

As part of my WW1 reading I came across this story about a War Horse in WW1 so decided to read it. The narrator, John Keating did a great job reading the story. The story is told from the point of view of the horse just like Black Beauty. The use of the horse Calvary in WW1 was a good example of trying to fight the with the equipment and tactics of the past. Machine guns, tanks and gas made the use of the war horse a disaster. The story has Joey following another war horse through the German lines. He is captured and becomes a German war horse then later he returns to English hands. The boy that raised him joins the army veterinary corp in a hope to find Joey. Read the story you will find it interesting as just a story but you can also learn a bit of history.

I started reading the Mrs. Pollifax series back in the middle 1960s. I have read them off and on whenever I came across a book. I understand the Dorothy Gilman died in February 2012 so there will be no more books. In this book Mrs. Pollifax is off to Switzerland to a spa hotel for a "rest from the flu" as a cover for her spy job for the CIA. Mrs. Pollifax is a retired teacher, she was bored so applied to the CIA for a part-time job. She is looking for missing plutonium. Of course, she solves the case in a delightful, sometimes funny way but the book is also full of action, suspense, murder, kidnapping, and at times a bit of how did she do that. The book is a great change of pace and leaves one feeling good. Barbara Rosenblat is one of my favorite narrators and she did her usual great job.

I love a good sea story. I had finished reading all the Patrick O'Brien books and started on C. S. Forester, now I have discovered Alexander Kent. He is not as well known as the other two but he is a master story teller and as good as the above mention writers. This book takes place in the period between the ending of the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary War. Many Royal Navy Captains are being beached at half pay. So Richard Bolitho is happy he is assign to Captain the 24 gun frigate Undine to sail to the East Indies. The trip goes down the coast of Africa around the Cape to India then on to what is now Indonesia. Lots of adventures along the way. He delivers the new British governor to the former Spanish post but finds the people almost dead with disease and constant fighting off native pirates. Now the real suspense, action, sea battles begin. Could not stop listening. Kent keeps on entranced in the story. Michael Jayson does a good job narrating the story. I hope that Audible will carry all the Alexander Kent books.

In all my readings over the past 2 years about World War 1, I had not come across The American Protective league. It was started in 1914 by A.M. Briggs a well-known Chicago Ad executive. at its height, in 1917, the League had 250,000 dues paying members. The League was an Auxiliary of the Dept. Of Justice. Attorney General Thomas Gregory approved them as an Auxiliary of the Bureau of Investigation. The BI had less than 200 men, few automobiles, they used public transportation to get around. The first thing Briggs did was organize the business men in Chicago and New York to donated some autos to the BI and obtain volunteer who had cars to drive the agents around. The unpaid auxiliary was assigned jobs by the DOJ, BI, military intelligent, local police, and various other government agencies. Bill Mills states that in 1914 and all through the War, American munitions plants were sabotaged and blown up as were other industries providing Britain with supplies. The League was to help hunt for the saboteurs. Mills states that J .Edgar Hoover was head of the Department of Food and Fuel regulations enforcement and he was one of the biggest user of the League making sure people adhered to the restriction. Mills also states that when the F.B.I was formed and Hoover but in charge, he would not officially restart up the League, but he used it as a group of unpaid informants. Mills states by the time the League was disbanded in 1919 after the war they had performed 75% of all investigation by the B.I. such as background check for security clearance, investigation of German Americans, also did undercover investigation, following people and checking out rumors. They also did general assistance of local police acting as a police reserve. Bill Mills provides a positive attitude toward the League and it's work but I can envision at number of problems having a group of unpaid, untrained people with some possibly being zealots.. It is interesting that the group was totally disbanded in 1919 and not used in WWII or in the Cold War. Mills gives some individually stories of spies caught also some smugglers and con men. Over all it is an interesting piece of history that I was totally unaware of. Eric Martin does a good job narrating the story. Anyone interested in history will enjoy this book.

I have read all the Women's Murder Club books but I am beginning to wonder why I bother. Boxer has a baby but did she have a personality transplant also? There was too many stories going on at the same time. One or two would have been better with more time to build the story and follow it to the end. This book made me feel as if I was being pulled one way then another. All but two of the murder club members had a personal crisis the other two had a work related crisis. This book would have been better as two books instead of one. January LeVoy did an acceptable job with the narration considering the chaos of the story lines.

Jonathan Clements book on the Vikings is well research and covers not only the history but gives us an introduction to the mythology of the Vikings. This is not a dry history book as he writes in a conversational tone and includes the stories of people almost like a historical novel. Mark Meadows does a fantastic job narrating the book with all the names and places. I would never have come close to the pronunciation of these words if I was reading the book to myself. Makes the audio format the best method for me to read this book. The title says a brief history but Clements sure did a good job of covering the earliest recorded dates to the current modern information including DNA to prove the data. I enjoyed the information on the British Isles as it tied into the information provided by Bernard Cornwell in his Saxon Series. Cornwell had also included some of the mythology in his book about the Vikings as well as the history of conquest and raids. Over all a great way to learn a bit about the history of the Vikings. I heard there is going to be a show about Vikings on T.V. also.

I am a great fan of Bernard Cornwell. This is book 5 in The Grail Quest series. I have read them in order but each book can stand alone. This book covers the weeks before the September 19, 1356 Battle of Poitiers and the battle itself and the capture of King John II of France. Cornwell builds the character of each of the key people in the story. Our hero is Thomas of Hookton head of the Helleguin. He and his wife Genevieve have a run in with the evil Count of Labrouillade and a church cardinal. The story is full of pomp and passion, action, suspense and great battle scenes. Cornwell is the master of writing battle scenes that come alive to the reader. Can not wait for the next book in the series, I hope there is more but with the ending of the war maybe not. Jack Hawkins did an excellent job narrating the story.

This is a translation of Xenophon's book "Anabasis" of his 401 B.C. participation as a mercenary in the army of Cyrus. Cyrus hired Greek mercenary to add to his Persian army to fight his brother King Artaxerxes II of Persia for the throne. He told the Greek he was going against the Pisidians. Cyrus was killed at the Battle of Canaxa. The Ten Thousand mercenaries found themselves without leadership far from the sea, deep in hostile territory near the heart of Mesopotamia. Xenophan was elected as one of the leaders and they fought their way north through hostile country chased by the Persian Army to the Black Sea then to Greece. His book records the entire expedition and his speeches to the soldiers and his reasons for each of the action they told. Great lessons in leadership and tactics. If you enjoy history this is a must book. Alexander used the book as a guide through the area. The description of the land in 401 B.C. is great. Charlton Griffin did a great job reading the book and pronouncing all the words.

Max Brand was a pseudonym for Frederick Schiller Faust, the famous poet. Faust wrote under many names and was a prolific writer in many genre such as romances, fairy tales, legends, mysteries , psycho-dramas and of course, westerns from the early 1900 to the 1950's. He wrote over 300 westerns alone. He said he wrote poetry in the morning and the fiction in the afternoon to paid the bills so he could write poetry. His college degree was in the Classics and he often worked one of the classic tales into his writing. He was considered one of the most significant American literary artists of the 20th Century. In this story he has a young man, hit a man and thinks he kills him and rides away, then kills one the men chasing him. The underlying theme is he an outlaw or not. I will not give away the ending nor the "women" who believed in him. There is action, suspense and the classic chase on horseback. I find reading a western a great change of pace from the other books I read and a great way to just relax. Jeff Harding did a good job reading the story.

I had been looking for a book about the life of Audubon and found this very short story. The author primarily covers Audubon's struggle to draw, self publish, and promote his bird books. The life like bird's he painted were not in style in the late 1700 and early 1800 when Audubon lived. He let his wife provided for the family while he worked on his bird pictures and he worked to earn money to self publish. This short story only whetted my desire to learn more about Audubon.

The story takes place in 1952 New England with a raging winter storm with seas of 60 to 70 feet and 70 mile an hour wind in snow and freezing seas and temperature. Two tankers the Pendleton and the Fort Mercer broke in half off Chatham, Ma. and the Coast Guard at Chatham send out a 36 foot lifeboat with four seaman aboard. Those four men managed to save 36 men (from the Pendleton) in a boat design to hold 12 men. Another 36 foot boat set out from another station to rescue men on the other ship. Not all men on the ships were saved. It is apparent that Tougias did a great deal of research before writing the book. The book has nail-biting action, suspense and what is great he also summed up at the end what happened to the lives of the "Coasties" and the seaman from the tankers . The four "Coasties" from Chatham received the Coast Guard highest award the Gold life saving metal. The author also reviewed the law and shipbuilding regulations regarding the breaking in half these two tankers. This is the greatest rescue by small boats in Coast Guard history.
Malcolm Hillgartner did a good job with narrating the book.